Stallman says Novell/Microsoft deal does not violate GPLv2

The Free Software Foundation’s founder Richard Stallman has confirmed that the recent patent covenant between Novell Inc and Microsoft Corp is not a violation of the current version two of the GNU GPL, but will be outlawed under version three.

"What has happened is, Microsoft has not given Novell a patent license, and thus, section 7 of GPL version 2 does not come into play," Stallman told the GPLv3 Conference in Japan, according to a transcript of his speech produced by the Free Software Foundation Europe.